Are Americans really overweight?
No question. According to the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), we are facing a major public health crisis. Most experts estimate that about two-thirds of Americans are overweight and about half of those — i.e. one third of the population — are so heavy they meet the clinical definition of obesity. Recently, the CDC predicted that obesity would soon overtake smoking as the number one cause of preventable death. Currently obesity is linked to some 400,000 premature deaths — 16 percent of all deaths — from conditions like heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
